


She Wore the Dress, and I Stayed Home

by Shoshanna Gold (shoshannagold)



Category: Covert Affairs
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 22:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoshannagold/pseuds/Shoshanna%20Gold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As requested: Danielle's view of Annie when she comes home all beat to shit.</p><p>The title is from the song, 'Sisters,' in Bing Crosby's <i>White Christmas</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Wore the Dress, and I Stayed Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [florahart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahart/gifts).



There were times when it was all Danielle could do to not scream, “I know you don’t work for the Smithsonian!” when she saw Annie. That morning was no exception.

Her sister walked slowly into the kitchen, holding her arm tightly against her stomach and breathing short, shallow breaths through her mouth. She was in flats again, her heels made impossible by her fractured ribs. The first thing Danielle did after leaving Annie’s hospital room was go to Neiman Marcus and buy her sister two pairs of Christian Louboutin flats: There was no reason for Annie to be deprived of fabulous shoes just because she got beat up smuggling nuclear warheads out of Iran or whatever. Michael would choke at the credit card bill, but Danielle was bringing in money now too, as the catering business grew slowly but steadily. If she wanted to spend thousands of dollars on shoes for her sore, bruised sister, she would do so!

“Those shoes look great with that skirt,” said Danielle, keeping her smile bright as she made herself sit still and let Annie seat herself at the table in the kitchen nook. “They don’t pinch, do they?”

Annie shook her head and smiled back. “Not one bit. It was so awesome of you to do that, Dani.”

“I couldn’t let you go back to work in sneakers, and I think those are the only other shoes you own,” said Danielle. “Why don’t I make you some breakfast, get some protein in you for your first day back cataloguing Ming Dynasty vases I’d imagine that can tire a girl out.”

She talked as she took the eggs out the fridge, telling Annie about what the girls had done last night – Chloe was doing _so_ well in tap dance. How crazy was that, when she and Michael had four left feet between them?

Actually, buying shoes had been the second thing that Danielle had done after leaving that awful hospital room. First, she’d sat down on the first bench she had come to once outside and cried. Sobbed, really, and no matter how tightly Michael held her, no matter what comforting things he whispered into her ear, she couldn’t stop crying for what felt like hours. All of the tension and dread she’s been holding in since Auggie had called her and told her that Annie was at Bethesda. That there had been a car accident. That Annie was fine, he’d said, his voice strong and reassuring, but she could use some nice PJs and a little bit of sisterly TLC.

Their father was a Marine. Retired, but once a Marine, always a Marine. Career military, starting as a lieutenant the year Danielle was born and retiring as a general a year after his second grandchild was born.

Danielle had grown up waiting for a phone call from the Marine Corps; for the chaplain to knock on the door, a kind woman behind him, both of them ready to hold her mother up as they told her that her husband was never coming home. Every deployment was the same: Every time the phone rang, every time somebody came over unexpectedly, she, Annie and their mother had braced themselves. To this day, each of them

Danielle had grown up on bases all over the world, and she understood better than most that soldiers got hurt, soldiers were killed. When she was seventeen, her father transferred to Quantico and the family had moved to Virginia. Her first serious boyfriend did a tour in Bosnia and came back wounded, a bullet through the shoulder from Serbia militia. Danielle had visited him at Bethesda daily and got to know most of the guys in his ward. She knew what a war injury looked liked.

So she knew the scar on Annie’s right shoulder was from shrapnel and had been stitched up in the field. She knew that Ya-ya hadn’t been a specialist in Iranian artifacts. And she knew that her sister hadn’t been in a car accident on her way home from Dulles. You didn’t get taken to Bethesda for rolling a BMW on Glebe Road. Why take a civilian to the Besthesda Naval Hospital – a good half-hour away by ambulance from the crash site? She’d said it, too:"I don't understand why we're here when there are, oh, I don't know, _five_ decent emergency rooms between here and where you said the accident was."

Nobody in the room had even blinked when Danielle had asked that out loud. That wasn’t a surprise: A room full of trained spies should be able to keep their poker faces when confronted with a mouthy relative.

Annie’s boss, an icy blonde who said her name was Claire, had come over and stood beside Danielle. “A military police unit was right behind them. They were equipped to deal with the situation, and as the first responders had the authority to take Annie and Jai to the care unit of their choice. They had be back at Bethesda, so here we are.”

Unbelievable. ‘Claire’ had looked Danielle right in the eye and lied to her. Did she not remember that Danielle and Annie had grown up breathing, eating, and sleeping military protocol? Danielle wanted to rail at her, to tell her to stop insulting her intelligence, but the other woman’s obvious pain stopped her. ‘Claire’ cared about Annie; Danielle found some degree of comfort knowing that. It clearly wasn’t going to stop the agency from sending her on missions, but at least there was one person who would do everything they could to make sure Annie came home, alive and in one piece.

More than one, actually. Their fabulous Smithsonian guide, Auggie, had been sitting on a chair outside Annie’s room, holding his head in his hands. He was clearly wasted at the agency: His Smithsonian tour had been all Chloe talked about for a week. But that was Special Forces types for you, all that honour and integrity and useless energy spent on a war that would never be won.

Jai had been in the room beside Annie’s, his torso covered in ice packs and butterfly bandages all over his face. He had been sleeping when Danielle popped her head in the room. ‘Claire’ (ha!) had come to stand behind her and explained that Jai had picked Annie up at the airport. He’d been driving the car when it hit a pothole. When Jai had tried to slow down, the car behind them had smashed into their rear, sending them spinning. Another lie, slipping out of her mouth as easily as the opening line of the Declaration of Independence.

“Is Jai going back to work today, too?” Danielle asked, putting the plate of eggs and turkey bacon she’d just made down in front of Annie.

Annie made a face. “He’s been back a week already. He was just bruised, nothing major. I think I could have gone back, too. It barely hurts at all anymore.”

Still, thank goodness for all of them. Annie needed people to look out for her, because she sure as heck wasn’t going to do it for herself.


End file.
